In recovery from yesterday’s cable outage, so here’s everything we were going to post all mashed up together:

§ Tom McLean’s blog Bags and Boards — which was one of the very first major media outlet blogs about comics, if we’re not mistaken — has been dropped by Variety, but he’s popped right up again.

§ Geoff Boucher continues his visit with Dan DiDio, this time taking a dip with Aquaman:

There have been so many twists and turns. It’s left the character confused; we try to build a strong foundation for the characters and Aquaman does not have that right now. We have to get him back to a core conceit so we can build him back up again. We need to build on what is recognizable and draw people back in. And everybody wants to try to take on the character. I have a running joke: In all my dinners with the talent at conventions, I get three or four writers who will lean into me and say, ‘I know how to fix Aquaman.’ Everybody says that. It’s become a cause célèbre. It’s a running joke but, really, it’s not a joke because I know people do love the character. We’re going to be very cautious from this point forward because I want to make sure it’s perfect. I don’t want to add to the confusion when we take another pass at him.

No one caught his name, and Rod Parker could only guess that he wasn’t a student. But none of that mattered, because the moment was stilled by what he had to say.

“Your book saved my life.”

The man admitted he didn’t know much about art, but that’s not why he was sitting among the crowd in LSU’s Life Sciences Auditorium listening to Pierre-Francois Beauchard’s lecture.

§ A visit with actress/activist Mia Kirshner, who has just collaborated with Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner, among others.

Known for her role on Showtime’s “The L Word,” the actress has released “I Live Here,” a paper documentary chronicling her seven-year immersion into global stories of refugees and displaced people. Proceeds from the book’s sales go to Amnesty International. The project focuses on four parts of the world: the Russian republic of Ingushetia, Burma, Malawi and the Mexican city of Juarez. The idea came in 2001 when Kirshner reportedly felt unfulfilled by her life as an actress. She enlisted the help from an impressive list of collaborators, financing the entire project with her own salary.

Much before Smith came to Crossword, Kemps Corner, a group of Bone fans were waiting for him armed with their copies. Most of them were animators and graphic novel fanatics. They seemed to be quite well acquainted with the band of Bone characters, Smith’s art, life, moves and future projects. “It’s a surprise to meet my secret admirers here,” said Smith. The novelist too had a surprise for them. Indian influences have seeped into the latter Bone volumes of the story unfolding in the strange land. His wife and business partner, Vijaya, who has her roots in Kerala, can probably claim the credit for it.

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Comments

Aquaman WAS fixed. Peter David did a great job in making the character interesting again. And then, for some reason, Eric Larsen was called in to replace him & not surprisingly, the book eventually tanked. DC has been trying to rectify that error for years now, without much success.

This seems like a complete no-brainer to me: Bring David back & leave him the hell alone this time.

Erik Larsen’s run on the book ended nine years ago. How on earth could he be responsible for the character’s problems now?

I would think the fact that the Sword of Atlantis reboot doubled the book’s sales and lost every drop of that boost inside of 9 months would be a better indication of the character’s current misfortunes…

I actually enjoyed Larsen’s take on Aquaman quite a bit. I think he was really hampered by being paired with Eric Battle’s terrible art. The few issues that Mark S. Miller drew were miles better, and hinted at how much better the run could have been as a whole.